For more than a century, the Palestinian people have suffered a historic injustice perpetrated in the name of Zionism, the ideological movement aimed at creating a Jewish national home in Palestine. What was supposed to be a solution to anti-Semitism in Europe has tragically turned into a never-ending nightmare for Palestinians.
Let's go back to the origins. After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain received a League of Nations mandate in 1920 to administer Palestine. From then on, with the blessing of Western powers, Zionists massively encouraged Jewish immigration to Palestine. In 1947, ignoring Arab protests, the UN voted on the plan to divide this territory between a Jewish state and an Arab state. It was the beginning of dispossession.
In 1948, as the British left Palestine, Zionist militias took advantage of the vacuum to unilaterally proclaim the creation of Israel on more than 77% of the land. What followed was the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), the forced exodus of more than 700,000 Palestinians fleeing massacres and the destruction of entire villages. Acts that many historians today describe as ethnic cleansing.
Since then, the Palestinians have suffered a centuries-old injustice: the illegal military occupation of their lands by Israel, the ever-increasing colonization of the West Bank by Jewish settlements, the inhumane blockade of Gaza, daily discrimination, the confiscation of their natural resources... How can the United Nations tolerate such a blatant violation of international law?
In 2024, it is clear that the so-called peace process was nothing more than an illusion. While the negotiations were not moving forward, Israel was methodically pursuing its policy of annexing Palestinian land. The Jewish state benefits from an apartheid system that it persists in denying, despite damning reports from NGOs like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
It is high time that the international community opened its eyes and took firm action. Demand respect for international law, an end to the occupation and illegal colonization of Palestinian territories. Recognize the State of Palestine within its 1967 borders. Unambiguously condemn the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Palestinians. Use all diplomatic and economic means to put pressure on Israel so that it finally respects the UN resolutions.
The Palestinian people, bullied, robbed of their land, deprived of their most basic rights for decades, have suffered too much. His cry must finally be heard. The historical injustice of which he is a victim at the hands of Israel, with the complicity of the great powers, must end. No people on Earth should suffer such a fate. The universal conscience rises today to say: enough! The time has come to bring justice and freedom to the Palestinians.
Moral suicide of the West
The unwavering support of Western powers for Israel since its creation in 1948 reveals the immense hypocrisy which undermines their supposed moral superiority.
The United States embraced the Zionist cause very early on, seeing Israel as a strategic ally in the Middle East. Since 1967, billions of dollars in US military aid to the Jewish state have contributed significantly to the continued illegal occupation and colonization of the Palestinian territories.
Europe is hardly left behind. Although it weakly condemns colonization at times, it remains Israel's leading commercial partner, strengthening its economic hold on the occupied territories. The United Kingdom, the former mandatory power that paved the way for Zionism, remains an active accomplice to the occupation.
This Western control of the conflict has shaped a Kafkaesque system of "peace", where UN resolutions accumulate without ever being applied. Where Israeli settlers benefit from a favorable legal regime, while the Palestinians are subject to the rule of the occupier. Peace for some, apartheid for others.
By selling out their founding ideals of freedom, equality and human rights, Western democracies have buried their credibility in the eyes of oppressed peoples. Their culpable blindness towards Israel definitively discredits them from any claim to moral superiority.
Who can still take seriously their fine words about the “values” they are supposed to defend? Their cynical realpolitik is causing a regime of apartheid, discrimination and dispossession to reign in Palestine that the world can no longer tolerate.
With the rise of new emerging powers, the West is seeing its influence decline. His balance of power will soon no longer allow him to impose an unjust solution by force. The only honorable outcome is to change our minds, renounce our ambiguous complacency and finally work for a just and lasting peace that respects the inalienable rights of the Palestinians.
If it does not want to sink into irreversible discredit, the West must reconnect with its conscience and make justice prevail over short-sighted geostrategic or economic interests. The fate of the Palestinians is the litmus test that will determine whether so-called Western “values” still have meaning or are just a hypocritical illusion.
If the responsibility of Western powers in the Palestinian tragedy is undeniable, it would be unfair to ignore the repeated betrayals of part of the Arab world towards the Palestinian people.
The “Arab brothers”
From the beginning of the conflict, certain Arab countries displayed their indifference, even their hostility towards the Palestinians. King Abdullah I of Transjordan thus coveted parts of Palestine to expand his kingdom. Divisions between Arab nationalists and the Arab League hampered resistance to the partition plan.
After the Nakba of 1948, Palestinian refugees were herded into miserable camps, kept in destitution calculated by the host countries to serve the "cause". Their right of return has been sold off on the altar of divergent geopolitical interests.
More recently, the Palestinian Authority no longer even has the political and financial support of part of the Arab world, which preferred to move closer to Israel. Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties at the cost of abandoning the Palestinians. The Gulf petromonarchies have begun de facto normalization with the Jewish state.
Worse, this year 2024, while Palestine is experiencing a new cycle of deadly violence, several Sunni Arab capitals seem to be aligning with the American peace plan decried as "the infamy of the century". A plan rejecting the legitimate rights of Palestinians, a sine qua non condition for a just and lasting peace.
So many denials, selfish calculations and compromises which tarnish the honor of Arab leaders as much as the cause they are supposed to defend. By betraying the Palestinians, the soul and dignity of the Arab people are damaged.
This pusillanimous moral failure will be remembered as the eternal shame of those who sacrificed a brother people on the altar of their ambitions and their short-sightedness. Let them no longer come to cloak themselves in the trappings of pan-Arabism and Arab-Muslim solidarity: their cowardice has dishonored them in the eyes of the world.
Fraternal call to action
It is time for people around the world, of all persuasions and origins, to rise up and bring down the arrogance of the oppressors. For too long, consciences have remained silent in the face of the endless martyrdom of the Palestinian people.For too long, our leaders have turned a blind eye to this injustice through cynicism, self-interest or cowardice.
May those who call themselves defenders of human rights stop being complicit in a despicable apartheid system through their culpable indifference! Let voices be raised everywhere to denounce the unbearable denial of the right of Palestinians to self-determination, in dignity and freedom!
Citizens, let us campaign by all peaceful and legal means to force our governments to break with this policy of (alleged) reason of state which flouts our most sacred ideals. Join the mobilization for firm sanctions against the Israeli colonial state, until it stops its iniquitous oppression.
May the year 2024 become that of a surge of people and consciences! Enough betrayals, procrastination, compromises with injustice! For too long, Palestine has shouted to the universe its legitimate right to exist. It is high time to finally hear his call for freedom!
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References:
UN reports:
- Resolution 181 of the General Assembly of United Nations (1947)
- Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (John Dugard, Richard Falk, Michael Lynk)
Historians on the Nakba:
- Ilan Pappé, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" (2006)
- Benny Morris, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited" (2004)
- Walid Khalidi, "All That Remains" (1992)
NGO on human rights:
- Amnesty International - Annual reports on the OPT
- Human Rights Watch - Reports on Israel/Palestine
- Al-Haq - Field reports on violations in the West Bank
International law:
- John Dugard, "Occupied territories and international law" (2003)
- Michael Lynk, "Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation human rights in the OPT" (2016-2022)
Palestinian testimonies:
- Ghassan Kanafani, "The Child of One or the Other Homeland" (1963)
- Edward Saïd, "Orientalism" (1978)
- Raja Shehadeh, “Palestinian Walks” (2007)
Analyzes of the conflict:
- Noam Chomsky, “Why there?” (2015)
- Avi Shlaim, "The Iron Wall" (2000)
- Rashid Khalidi, "Broker Vision: Palestinian Memoir" (2013)
- Norman Finkelstein, "The Holocaust Industry" (2000)
On Arab divisions initials against Zionism:
- Benny Morris, "Victims:Revisited history of the Arab-Zionist conflict" (2003)
- Walid Khalidi, "Palestine partition plan: Study of a decision taken against the grain" (1984)
On the fate of Palestinian refugees in Arab countries:
- UNRWA report on refugee camps (2022)
- Reports from NGOs such as Amnesty and HRW on the condition of refugees
On Arab normalization with Israel:
- Articles from analysis by Al-Jazeera and Middle East Eye on the Abraham Accords
- "The Unacceptable Deal of the Century" by Alain Gresh (2020)
On the American "peace plan" criticized in 2024:
- Press analysis articles Arabic (Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Al-Araby al-Jadeed, etc.)
- Statements from Palestinian NGOs like Al-Haq, PCHR, etc.
Palestinian testimonies on Arab betrayal:
- Edward Said, "The Palestinian Question" (1979)
- Statements by Hanan Ashrawi, Mustafa Barghouti and other Palestinian leaders
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